On November 20, 1649, after a two-day stay at the port of Da Po, the temperature plummeted, and even though the warm current was partly affected, a large amount of ice floes still gushed out of the sea off Qinghe Township (later Novikivo, Russia). This made it necessary for the captain of the Sakhalin Eagle to steer very carefully in order to avoid hitting the ice floe and damaging the ship.

Since the Navy has not yet carried out a comprehensive and systematic survey of the hydrological conditions of the coastal waters of this generation, the "Sakhalin Eagle" does not dare to get too close to the coast, and can only anchor in the deep sea farther away, and by the way can avoid the coastal waters where there is a lot of ice floe.

Near the mouth of the river is a rolling embankment that was originally built by the Japanese, but is now owned by the people of the east bank. Even in the first place, in order to expel the Japanese fishermen and the Ainu tribesmen who had joined them, the people of the east coast mobilized a force of several hundred people from Obo to suppress them. For this reason, the Japanese Matsumae Domain also sent personnel to this place to negotiate with the people on the east coast, and finally settled the matter with the government of the Blackwater Pioneer Team compensating the Japanese fishermen here for the loss of 5,000 yuan. At this point, the flag of the Republic of China on the east coast of China was raised on this land first developed by the Japanese.

However, in view of the friendly relations between the two sides, when the agreement was signed with the Japanese, although the land was demarcated and assigned to the east coast, the Japanese still retained various economic rights and interests in this area. For example, the land they have cultivated can continue to be cultivated, but it needs to be divided so that it meets the requirement that no more than 30 acres of land per person on the east coast should be owned; As of the date of the agreement, Japanese fishing vessels registered in the area can continue to fish, but they will have to pay taxes to the people on the east coast. Finally, they can continue to retain the right to employ the Ainu who are dependent on them.

Generally. The agreement is acceptable to both parties. The East Coasters gained sovereignty. The Japanese have lost the land that their ancestors had developed. However, the number of Japanese people here is extremely limited, and it is not a major place for the Matsumae Domain, at best it is just a place to rest for summer fishing. Now that the people of the east coast have promised to let them continue to fish here, and have also safeguarded the economic interests they have always had, and have given the boss of the Matsumae clan a face--to pay 5,000 silver dollars in compensation to some fishermen, then those who should be let go must be let go. After all, a weak country has no diplomacy, and the shogunate would not necessarily attack the people on the east coast for the sake of some enclave of the Matsumae domain in Sakhalin, so why should he risk the risk of cutting off business and turn against the people on the east coast?

Besides. Even if the bigwigs of the Matsumae clan wanted to turn against the people of the East Coast, would the lords of the Dewa, Muchinoku, and Sendai domains, who had now colluded with them to do business with the East Coast, agree? The answer is clearly no! In that case, what is the need to toss, the people on the east coast want it, just let it be given to them, as long as we continue to fish.

However, this incident also greatly stimulated the Matsumae Domain. Relying on their growing economic power, they began to recruit people in Japan and reclaim Hokkaido. In addition to the large number of peasants, there was also a considerable number of samurai classes, all of whom now worked for the Matsumae Domain. If I count the Japanese of Hokkaido carefully. At this time, it may have reached nearly 40,000 people, several times the number in the history of the same period. Chen Shuo, a student of Wei Boqiu and the de facto head of the East Coast Japanese Company, was worried. But this is all for later, and the people of the East Coast can't manage so much for a while.

To the east of the embankment of the creek is a small hill that stretches south to the shore, forming a high cliff. There is a Japanese temple and several houses at the top of the cliff, and there are also some monks and a few Japanese vegetable households. Of course, a tall lighthouse has been built on top of the cliff, and a battery with eight barreled guns ranging from 6 to 12 pounders, and dozens of soldiers stationed to defend the coastal defense.

Tiny snowflakes drifted in the sky, Wei Boqiu tightened his bearskin jacket, strode on the sandy road in Qinghe Township, and went straight to the botanical garden. It has been two years since the botanical garden was built, and it is already a small scale, and in the summer, Wei Boqiu had to go to Yantai to temporarily replace Lao Shao's class, so he did not have time to inspect and supervise this place that was extremely important to the Heishui development team. At the moment, although it is late autumn and early winter, Wei Boqiu still took the opportunity to inspect the townships under the jurisdiction of the newly established Dabo County (Dabo Township, Qingquan Township, Dushengji Township, Qinghe Township) and came here to have a look.

At the entrance of the botanical garden stood eight heavily armed garrison soldiers, and across from them, several Japanese were seated or standing, dressed as samurai. Wei Boqiu looked up and saw that three of them were sitting on a straw mat under the shed, and the Japanese samurai led by him was older, and his face full of vicissitudes revealed a trace of anxiety. He carried three katanas, two of which were at his waist and the third in the hands of a young samurai standing behind him; The elder samurai were also flanked by a samurai, each with a long katana hanging from his waist.

"The samurai ...... of the Matsumae Domain," Lin Dengtu, the head of Qinghe Township and a veteran of the servant army system who came to greet Wei Boqiu, explained to Wei Boqiu in a low voice, "I came to ask the botanical garden to buy the cultivated wheat seeds, and I have been here for several days, and I was talking at first, but recently I have been sitting here like this day and day, like a log." However, the botanical garden did not dare to sell the improved varieties separated from the pure line to the Matsumae clan without permission from the higher authorities, so things were frozen. ”

Wei Boqiu smiled when he heard this, and said, "Go and tell that Japanese to help us pull the samurai over and serve us." There are a lot of land, livestock, and grain, and there is no problem with eating balls every day, and there are as many people as you come. As long as we bring in more people, we can sell them good seeds. ”

The high-quality wheat cultivated by the people of the East Coast is only a simple pure line separation, and the seed degrades quite quickly. The Japanese only knew that the wheat yield on the east coast was high, but they did not know that the wheat seed had to be re-cultivated every year, otherwise the yield would decline year by year, and eventually the seed would become a featureless ordinary seed. In other words, if the Matsumae clan wants to maintain a high yield per mu in the future, it will have to order seeds from the Northern Botanical Garden for a long time, which is another small business.

When Lin Dengtu heard this, he immediately went to negotiate with the Japanese, while Wei Boqiu continued to walk, accompanied by the botanical garden technicians, and listened to their work reports: "We transplanted a few wild pear saplings from the nearby forest and improved the soil texture, hoping to grow fruits that taste good." In the case of the rarity of the fruit in the region, if the domesticated wild pear tastes good, it should bring good profits to the orchard operators. ”

In fact, what about the horticultural efforts of the people of the East Coast in the southern part of Sakhalin. Initially, in 1645, some local horticulturists had been sent to create orchards and cultivate plants, but most of these efforts failed. For example, the transplantation of artificial apple saplings by East Coast horticulturists first in Blackwater Port and later on Rishiri Island has been frustrated by several failed attempts.

Even at the time, a frustrated Livonian horticulturist asserted: "With the climate here, it is impossible to produce a good apple tree." There are many strong winds here at the beginning of summer, and it is easy to blow off the fruit flowers; In early spring, the high temperature during the day and the cold at night make the slurry in the trunk flow during the day and freeze at night, damaging the tree quality. In addition, the families of some engineers who came to work in the Far East brought apple tree cuttings from the East Coast were unsuccessful, which further reinforced the argument that the Blackwater region was not suitable for orchard cultivation.

However, the East Coast people succeeded in the end, and the secret of success lies in grafting. That is, they first collected some wild apple trees from the forest, transplanted them into the port of Da Po, and then grafted the scion onto these wild apple trees. After four years of careful care, the East Coast horticulturists have finally reaped the fruits – they have harvested hundreds of fragrant, juicy apples that taste so good that they even have a hint of unique flavour compared to the native varieties of the East Coast. Most of these fruit-bearing trees have been transplanted to the botanical garden in Qinghe Township, where horticulturists will continue their research to breed apple trees that are more exportable and productive.

In addition to apples, the East Coasters also cultivated other fruit trees, such as plums and grapes, but the plums succeeded, and the grapes clearly failed. The origin of the first plum in the Heishui area is quite legendary, the canned fruit produced in the local Ping'an County traveled by sea to the port of Da Bo, and then a soldier planted the pits left over after eating them into the ground, and after a few years, it actually produced satisfactory fruits, and then it was quickly snapped up, and the nearby farmers are now growing plums.

As for the source of the grapes, it is in the nearby mountains, which are full of wild vines. However, after years of cultivation, the technology of grafting improved varieties has also been adopted, but the fruits produced are still not satisfactory, and generally have the characteristics of small grains, thick skin, and large kernels of wild varieties, and the value is not high. At present, the Qinghe Botanical Garden has transferred the research and cultivation of grapevines to Zhifu Island in Yantai, where the soil is very suitable for grape growth, so they specially imported grapevines from Europe, looking forward to making a big impact there.

After inspecting the botanical garden, Wei Boqiu stayed here for one night. The next day, he took a boat, taking advantage of the fact that the ice floe in the open sea had not yet increased, and hurriedly left Qinghe Township and headed south towards Kushiro Port in Ezo. This winter, he will spend the winter there while he gets a good grasp of the local immigration development work.

Now that the first county has been built in the Heishui area (Dabo County, with four townships under its jurisdiction and nearly 10,000 registered residents), other places must also be fastened! (To be continued......)